


Let's Do Lunch

by jackycomelately



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackycomelately/pseuds/jackycomelately
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Thomas do lunch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's Do Lunch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alashandra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alashandra/gifts).



Some days my brother is an ass. 

And some days I really miss being a hairdresser. Besides feeding my demon, it could be a satisfying profession. And it had to be a very bad day, indeed, for anyone to actually try to kill you. Note I didn’t say that it never happened. Get a bride’s hair wrong and no jury would convict her (and her bridesmaids _will_ help her bury the body). 

The closest thing Harry had to a normal job was his detective gig. I can tell he misses it.

***

I met up with Harry at noon. Lunch has become a tradition with us on his birthday. I take him out to the nicest most expensive burger place I can find. We have a few beers and catch up.

Even with the things I can’t tell him, it usually takes a while. Since Harry became the Winter Knight his access to the good gossip has substantially improved. I update him on all the latest happenings at the White Court and just enjoy hanging out with my brother. 

It took a while for that to really sink in. My brother was alive. The time when he was “dead” had been a dark one. I did some things I‘m not proud of. 

“So… how’s Murphy?”

Murphy and I have our differences, but I think she’d be good for Harry. I wish Harry would get off the pot and make a move there. Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why Murphy would hesitate. To say that Harry’s people skills need work is to vastly understate the case. He has a bad habit of figuring that his allies would be better off without him and not keeping them in the loop. Case in point not telling me that he’s fucking _alive_. Seriously, I should make him pay for his own birthday lunch. Still, when the iron has hit the Fae, Murphy has supported Harry, and she could really use someone watching her back in return. Harry has his issues, but lack of loyalty isn’t one of them. 

Case in point—me. He stuck it out even when my French gay persona made him cringe. Really, it was good for him. I know he extends the same loyalty to Murphy even letting himself be blackmailed to save her career. It’s a shame in the end it wasn’t enough to save her job. 

“Murphy is doing okay. Still kicking ass even without being a cop.”

“Uh-huh.” I could see the conflicted emotions in his face. 

“Are you ever going to make a move there?”

Harry avoided my eyes. 

“I don’t think I can give her what she wants.”

“Sure, because Murphy always struck me as someone who needs roses and diamonds.” 

Harry scowled at me.

“She wants someone to grow old with. And a few kids.”

Not a lot to ask for really. However, if Harry’s dangerous life didn’t end in an early death, he could easily live for a few hundred years. Nothing like the immorality I could have, but easily double or triple the average person’s lifespan. So either way, they would not be growing old together. As far as kids go, well, Harry’s too tied in knots to really open up to them. I don’t know when he’s going to let Maggie…

“I visited Maggie.”

Oh Empty Night.

“How’d it go?

Harry winced. “Well, the worst didn’t happen. She didn’t remember. She just… She just didn’t know me. She was perfectly polite and totally indifferent. So, best case really.”

“You have to give her time. Give her a chance to get to know you.”

“I’m not sure that’s in her best interest. It might be better…”

“Oh bullshit.” Seriously. “Would it have been better if your Dad had left you with a foster family? If you had never know him?”

If looks could kill, oh right, Harry really could kill with a look. Well, no guts, no glory.

“How much would you have given to spend time with our mother outside of a single soulgaze?”

I could hear the fizzle of someone’s smart phone giving up the ghost at a nearby table. The lights flickered ominously. 

“How much worse could you be than my father?”

“I killed her mother. I killed her mother in front of her.”

“Yes, you did, but you’re the only father she’ll ever have.”

“Michael…”

“Is a fine man, but he isn’t you. I’m not saying that biological fatherhood conveys some magical bond; I would be the last one to say that. I’m saying that Michael is Michael and Harry Dresden is Harry Dresden. I’m saying that she should have the right to experience who you are first hand.”

“And if it gets her kill?”

“You can’t control that Harry. No one can. Don’t you think any parent would be willing to make that trade? Sadly, cutting you out of her life won’t convey magical protection on her. It just means she’s that much poorer for having never known you.”

“I need a drink," Harry said.

I was actually astonished that he had listened. I expected him to get up and walk out before I finished talking.

I gestured my bottle at the waiter and he brought another beer over. Harry downed it with an air of desperation. 

“I don’t know Thomas.” Harry picked at the label. “There just doesn’t seem to be a happy ending whichever way I look at it.”

“Hell’s bells Harry! Who looks for an ending? Try and make the present as rich as you can. Nothing ever ends well. Read any biography. It’s all disease and death and misery. Work on the present. Who says that the happiness you give her now isn’t just as important as any pain you give her in the future? What are you going to rob her present to make her future simplier? You think life is meant to be simple, you’re lying to yourself. Give the girl what you can for as long as you can. Let the devil take the hindquarter, brother.”

Harry rubbed his face. “Well, I’ll drink to that.”


End file.
